Malta’s greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force last week was “Labour’s fault”, PN leader Bernard Grech said on a Sunday as he moved away from the unity-calling rhetoric he presented in his initial reactions to the decision.

Speaking in a telephone interview on NET FM, Grech said that Prime Minister Robert Abela and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana themselves had admitted that 18 months of endless work so that the country is not greylisted was not enough to prevent it from happening.

“It is clear, by their own admission, that being greylisted was Labour’s fault”, Grech said.

The placement of blame sees Grech move away from the more unifying rhetoric which he presented in his initial reaction to the FATF’s decision last Wednesday.

Back then, he said “this is a punishment on all the Maltese people. This is not the time to dwell on why we ended up in this situation but to work together for the national consensus.”

Elaborating on Sunday, however, Grech noted that despite all the legislative reforms in the past 18 months, Robert Abela had remained afraid of taking the decisions which the country needs, naming Abela’s defence of the Electrogas power station contract in parliament and the appointment of former Finance Minister Edward Scicluna as the governor of the Central Bank of Malta “even though he is under criminal investigation” as two such examples.

“When you see Abela taking these decisions, you have to conclude that, despite all the new regulations, our country lacks credibility – and that is all Labour’s fault, including that of Robert Abela”, Grech said.

“There is no quick fix.  Credibility is lost quickly, and takes a long time to rebuild.  You cannot have the same person who has steered you into an alleyway try to steer you back out”, he added.

Grech said that the PN can offer credibility because “in no way where we – neither the party, nor the MPs, nor the leaders – the ones who destroyed our reputation.”

“We are those who can rebuild it”, Grech pledged.

Asked about the government’s refusal to adopt a PN proposal for a national task force to get Malta off the grey-list, Grech said that Abela lacked the courage and strength to accept the PN’s help.

“Where we need a mature and humble leader, we have a government which is being stubborn and uninterested in accepting the help of others to solve the problem”, he said.

He said that the PN has one interest at the moment: that of saving the financial services sector and the jobs of many Maltese both in this sector and in others which may also be affected by the greylisting.

Grech said that the help which he is offering is in the country’s best interest, and noted that when it is not accepted, it means that those who are not accepting it do not have the country’s best interests at heart.

He said that the PN will continue to meet constituted bodies and social partners to hear their concerns, and that he will also address parliament on Monday about the importance of getting Malta off the greylist.

Moving onto the Covid-19 pandemic, Grech said that the PN had been vindicated in calling for more Covid-19 measures, such as additional screening at the country’s border points, some months ago as these measures had now been adopted.

He expressed satisfaction at the UK’s decision to green list Malta, and augured that the case numbers remain low, adding that people must remain careful and follow all the regulations in place.

Speaking briefly about the work on the PN’s electoral programme, Grech said that work in the party’s clusters is ongoing, but neglected to mention proposals for which sectors will be unveiled next.

He said, however, that the party is looking at sectors across the board and in a holistic manner.